December

Blueberry Man by Christina E. Petrides: This lovely picture book offers a fond remembrance of the author’s granddaddy, a blueberry farmer. He provided blueberries for family, friends, and young blueberry pickers, earning the nickname “Blueberry Man.” The berries’ color spurs memories of Granddaddy’s naval uniform and his stories of adventures at sea. Beautiful watercolor illustrations suggest details of those stories (sharks and palm trees encroach on a warm scene of children listening around the grandfather’s chair).

Year 2020 included the deaths of notable politicians, academics, theologians, athletes, and artists. The pages that follow recognize those whose deaths received much media attention—along with several whose deaths didn’t. We’ve noted when those deaths came primarily because of COVID-19. You’ll notice a different format at the end of the section: COVID-19 didn’t just kill famous people, but took members of our churches and communities who won’t make the perennial lists of celebrity roll calls.

The Second Mother by Jenny Milchman: For a year, abetted by her husband, Julie smothers with alcohol the rage and guilt she feels over the loss of her infant daughter. After a public meltdown, she’s ready for change. She applies for and gets a job as the teacher in a one-room schoolhouse on Mercy, a remote Maine island. The change proves beneficial at first, but nothing is as it seems. When she pays extra attention to a gifted but possibly troubled student, the grandson of the island’s most influential couple, things begin to go wrong.

Whoo-ku Haiku: A Great Horned Owl Story by Maria Gianferrari: In this nonfiction book about great horned owls, Gianferrari limits herself to the haiku form. She covers a season in the owl life cycle: from nest renovation (owls don’t make their own nests, they steal from others), through egg-laying and hatching, to fledging and independence.

The White Devil’s Daughters: The Women Who Fought Slavery in San Francisco’s Chinatown by Julia Flynn Siler: Prostitution was legal and rampant in San Francisco in the 19th century. Criminals bought Chinese girls from their impoverished parents, smuggled them into the country, and turned them into prostitutes and house slaves. Corrupt police and politicians allowed the practice to flourish.

Box: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford: Poet Weatherford tells in a series of poems the true Job-like story of Henry Brown, a slave who shipped himself in a wooden box to freedom.

The Nesting Dolls by Alina Adams: The Nesting Dolls, out on July 14, is a fascinating multigeneration tale that moves from Stalin-era Siberia to Brighton Beach, N.Y., in 2019. The story focuses on the women in a Russian Jewish family who face incredible obstacles just to survive. Adams shows the horrors of Stalin’s Soviet Union and the desperate choices some people made. The book ends with Zoya, a young woman who grew up in the United States. She has a private-school education and privileges her parents and grandparents could only dream of.